Strength-based perspective - ADHD

A friend shared with me recently her observation of what happened in a learning setting. A primary age boy with ADHD was frequently scolded and placed in the timeout corner for not being able to comply with expectations. As much as I feel for the teachers who had apparently been frustrated and tired of his antics, I wondered if they stopped to consider how he felt too. How do you feel about it? I felt kind of sad, to be honest. Students with overt misbehaviours are more frequently flagged up simply because of their apparent disruptiveness. If this was to change, the onus will be on the teachers to create an inclusive learning environment to showcase/use the strengths of this child. I am putting what I posted on Instagram last weekend about adopting a strength-based perspective here.

Strengths or deficits? The environment and its expectations determine if a certain characteristic is a strength or deficit. This is great news - this means that it is up to us to design learning conditions or environments to highlight strengths.

If there is a core skill to learn to be inclusive, it will be acquiring a strength-based perspective. I did a simple activity in a recent webinar and was surprised to see that this was perhaps not so easy as we think it would be. We simply need more practice!

Check out Mr Jensen - https://youtu.be/4p5286T_kn0. He is the exemplary educator who used a strength-based approach when he gave Clint a pair of drumming sticks.

Let's challenge ourselves! If you have a "disruptive" student in your class, are you first willing to identify his strengths?

Then ask yourself, "how can I design my instructional programme to showcase or use his strengths? "